Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
Rekosh clutched Ahmya tighter. His hearts thundered, their beats echoing through his body all the way to the tips of his fingers and legs. Even with his eyes squeezed shut, the red haze lingered, flashing with each heartbeat.
His mate was warm, soft, and real . And he’d never felt closer to her than at that moment.
Gradually, his hearts eased, the haze faded, and the bristling tension in his limbs dissipated. The urge to fight, to kill, to protect, subsided as well. She didn’t need a shield now; she needed her shelter.
It felt as though an eternity had passed since he’d last held his mate in his arms. There was no way their joyous, excited journey through the Tangle, finally bound for home, had occurred that very morning. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
“I have you now, vi’keishi . I have you,” he said hoarsely.
He gently combed his fingers through her tangled hair and breathed in her scent, seeking hints of her sweetness amidst the acrid odor of smoke. She chased away his pains, soothed his rage, balanced his spirit.
Faint tremors pulsed through him as the last of his fury- driven strength vanished. Gods, another moment longer and she might have?—
No . She was safe now. He would not follow the chaotic, maddening threads of what might have been. Ahmya was with him now.
But something more than Ahmya’s natural fragrance broke through the smoke stench—the cloying smell of her blood. He realized now that he felt it too, on her back, where her dress was wet and sticky.
Opening his eyes, Rekosh drew back from her, holding her up with his lower arms as he looked her over. His hearts shattered at what he saw. Dirt and black soot were smeared across her skin, and she was covered in scratches and cuts, many of which were crusted with blood. Between the dirt, ash, and blood, it was impossible to tell where she was bruised, but he knew that once she cleaned up, there’d be mottled patches of flesh all over her body.
Mandibles hanging limp, he emitted a low, mournful buzz and grasped the strap of her dress with his upper hand, lowering it to check her for any deeper wounds.
Ahmya flatted a palm over his hearts. “I’m okay, Rekosh.”
He met her gaze, which glittered with tears. His heartsthread pulled taut, making everything in his chest and throat suddenly, painfully tight. “There is much blood. Too much.”
“I’m okay. Just…hold me. Please.”
Reverently, he smoothed Ahmya’s hair back from her face, unable, unwilling, to look away from those deep, brown eyes. He could feel her trembling against him. Could feel her exhaustion. It was his own.
“Ah, my nyleea …” He drew her close and pressed his headcrest to her forehead. “I will hold you until the moons and stars fall dark.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she slipped her arms around his neck, embracing him tight .
“Wait.” Ahmya abruptly lifted her head, fear creeping into her voice. “There are more of them! We need to go, need to?—”
“Rekosh, Ahmya! Thank the Eight.”
Both Rekosh and his mate turned their heads toward that familiar voice.
Urkot approached from only a few segments away, mandibles raised in a smile, with Ketahn, Telok, and Garahk just behind him. All four wielded spears and were spattered with blood. At a glance, most of that blood didn’t seem to belong to any of them.
Ahmya tensed against Rekosh before sagging in his hold. With a relieved sigh, she said, “Oh, thank God.”
Rekosh chittered, drawing her more snugly against his side. “You are late my friends. Did you let old stoneskull lead?”
“Even I could have followed the trail you left, needlelegs,” Urkot replied, his blue eyes alight.
“Now I know you did not heed our lessons,” said Ketahn with a smile of his own. “You may as well have left a thread in your path for us to follow.”
“Exactly as I intended,” Rekosh said.
“I am sure it was. Such carelessness could only have been intentional.”
Rekosh’s amusement faded as his eyes drifted to the camp. He couldn’t see anything over the thorn wall but for the smoke billowing from the pit at the camp’s center and the now empty tree platform. “Is it done?”
“Yes.” Ketahn followed Rekosh’s gaze with his own. “A few attempted to flee. We sent them all to join their queen.”
Urkot strode closer, grasped the back of Rekosh’s head, and dragged him down, pressing their headcrests together.
“I am glad we found you two.” The blue-marked vrix’s voice was thick and gruff as he momentarily tightened his grip. When he stepped back, his blue eyes met Rekosh’s before flicking to Ahmya .
She offered him a smile. “We are glad to be found.”
Rekosh nuzzled his mate’s hair. “You have taken the words from my throat, kir’ani vi’keishi .”
“Unfortunately for all of us, your supply is unlimited.” Telok strode up to Rekosh and met his gaze. “Yet I am glad to again be deprived of peaceful silence.”
He mimicked Urkot’s gesture, though he withdrew sooner.
Something warm and full bloomed in Rekosh’s chest. “Thank you, my brother.”
Ketahn came next to touch headcrests. When he moved back, he raised a lower hand, holding up Rekosh’s bag. “And I believe this is yours.”
The bag was a little dirtier than before, but intact.
Which meant the dress was unharmed.
Rekosh would’ve gladly watched a thousand such dresses burn if it kept his mate safe, but he could not deny his relief and gratitude.
“Thank you. But you may soon regret returning this to me, Ketahn,” Rekosh said with a chitter, taking the bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Ahmya helped lift his long hair out of the way of the strap.
Once the bag was in place, he tilted his head and looked Ketahn over, from the top of his headcrest to the tips of his legs and back again. “Ketahn, I am glad to see you, but…why are you here?”
“Garahk returned to Kaldarak with Lacey and told us what happened,” Ketahn said, eliciting a relieved sigh from Ahmya. “He apologized for losing you.”
Ahmya looked at Garahk around the others. “You did not lose us.”
The thornskull, his white hide smeared with mud, brought his forearms together in apology. “I was leader of the hunt, and you are mine. Mine to guide, to shield. ”
“We are alive now because of you, Garahk. Because of all of you.” Rekosh tapped a knuckle to his headcrest in respect.
Garahk thumped the ground with a foreleg and chittered. “How many did you give death to, weaver? Four, five? Again, I have missed your shar’thai . It must have burned bright as the sun.”
“One of those must be counted for Telok. He…” Rekosh’s eyes drifted to Ketahn again, and whatever he’d been about to say faded from his mind. His mandibles twitched as he regarded his friend again. “You have not answered my question, Ketahn.”
Ketahn bumped a foreleg against Rekosh’s. “I could not leave two of my family at the mercy of the Tangle. You would have done the same, would you not?”
“Yes, but you have been inseparable from Ivy and Akalahn. You have been so protective of them that you have seemed ready to attack anyone who so much as looks at them for a moment too long.”
Telok grunted in amused agreement.
Garahk pounded his chest with a fist. “They are with my heartsflame and our broodlings. Nalaki watches over them.”
Ketahn nodded. “It was no easy choice, but I could not leave the two of you out here alone. I had to join the search. And where safer a place for my mate and broodling than Kaldarak, in the den of the daiya ?”
Chittering, Rekosh glanced at Urkot and Telok. “You had to drag him away, did you not?”
Both males nodded, their mandibles rising.
“Ivy commanded him to come,” Telok said, “and we carried out her command.”
Ketahn snorted. “I came of my own will.”
Garahk chittered.
“You needed a bit of aid to allow your mate and broodling out of your sight.” Mirth dancing in his eyes, Urkot lowered his voice. “And Telok may not want to admit it, but we would not have found your trail in time without Ketahn.”
Telok grunted and thumped Urkot’s hindquarters with a leg joint.
“Many words to share,” said Garahk, “but this is no place to share them. We must make our own wild den for this night. The gods will not favor us if we den where they have been disrespected.”
Ketahn moved back, dipping his head to Garahk. “Yes. Let us see to our friends’ wounds and hasten from this accursed place.”
“I will remain and watch over the area,” Telok said. “There may be more of Zurvashi’s worms yet to return to their camp.”
“Two of Kaldarak’s best will keep watch with you,” Garahk said. “When the sun crests, they will guide you to our wild den.”
“What of the…shrine?” Rekosh asked.
The thornskull pounded the blunt end of his spear on the ground. “Crushed to dust. The Blooddrinker Queen will not rise again while Kaldarak lives. This is true, beneath sun and sky. By my blood and fury.”
“Queen of dust,” Rekosh said with a snap of his fangs. And that quickly, he dismissed Zurvashi from his thoughts, shifting his attention to his mate. He brushed the long, black strands of her hair from her face and tucked them behind her rounded ear, his fingers lingering to caress it. “I will tend to you, kir’ani vi’keishi .”
Ahmya smiled and looped an arm around his head, tugging him down so she could touch her forehead to his headcrest. In a soft voice, she said, “And I will tend to you, my luveen .”
Rekosh closed his eyes. He felt every wound he’d suffered over the last few days. Every struggle weighed upon him, every stress clawed at him. But none of it mattered, because his mate was in his arms, alive, and they were going home.